Tag: painting

  • Looking through rose colored glasses

    Looking through rose colored glasses

    I’ve spent the last 25+ years painting fabric with textile paint, Tsukineko inks and acrylic inks. I’ve learned how to successfully paint smooth gradations of color, avoid bleeding, and paint fine details on an unprimed or gessoed substrate (cotton fabric). Gesso is the white painted surface on canvas that keeps paint from absorbing into the…

  • Wanna jump start your creativity?

    Wanna jump start your creativity?

    Check out this roster of great teachers! offering lots of great quilting and mixed media classes. I’m thrilled to be teaching again at this super fun retreat. Here’s what’s on my Craft Napa schedule: Paint and Printapalooza 2-days Thursday – Friday 9:00am – 5:00pm Make your own personal fabric line! Learn a variety of techniques for creating…

  • The paintings continue

    The paintings continue

    I don’t have multiple photos of this one in process, because it was a bit of a disaster for a while and kept changing until I turned it into a painting of succulents, but if you’re really curious this is what it looked like at one point. See, sometimes my stuff looks awful too 🙂…

  • Learning, Creating, Living

    Learning, Creating, Living

    There are countless articles on the importance of continuing to learn new things as we age. They say it helps ward off declining brain function, memory loss and boosts low spirits, and eases depression. This year I’ve immersed myself in more small art projects than ever. To be honest, I haven’t had the energy or…

  • Painting canvases

    Painting canvases

    I love painting fabric then stitching it, but the downside is that it’s a much slower process than simply painting canvas. Sometimes I want to work on more projects and be more experimental with my painting since I feel like I learn so much every time I sit down to paint. Unfortunately, I don’t have…

  • The Value of Contrast and Taking Risks

    The Value of Contrast and Taking Risks

    Before I start talking about painting, I want to say a big Thank you!  to everyone who ordered my book! If you’d like to order a copy of my book, click on the photo, use promocode 15MAY for 15% off, during check out. And I’d like to mention a new teaching event I have scheduled next April.…

  • I finally did it, I wrote a book!

    I finally did it, I wrote a book!

    I wrote, designed and self-published  Creative Alchemy, 10+ Techniques with Acrylic Inks, as a supplement to my Acrylic Inks class, with the intention of eventually writing other books in a series on the different painting media and techniques I teach, under the Creative Alchemy title. 10+ Techniques with Acrylic Inks, covers all the various demos I do in my…

  • Spend a week immersed in the ultimate creative exploration using Acrylic Inks with me!

    Spend a week immersed in the ultimate creative exploration using Acrylic Inks with me!

    Oh my gosh, what could be more wonderful than crisp cool mornings, fall colors, and uninterrupted creative time in the Great Smoky Mountains for a whole week! Sounds like heaven to me and it’s coming up soon! October 12-18, I will be teaching an  Acrylic Ink Textile Adventure at Arrowmont, and I keep thinking of new techniques to…

  • Exploring new directions with a variety of media

    Exploring new directions with a variety of media

    Recently I used acrylic inks to bring new life to a couple ‘finished’ pieces that, to put it simply, felt unfinished. I really love the way they look after adding a larger, more colorful, image. Each piece now has a dominant focal point painted with acrylic inks on top of a subtle, mainly monochromatic, background that was created with a variety…

  • My road trip to Fresno, CA… 3 days after returning from Australia

    My road trip to Fresno, CA… 3 days after returning from Australia

    I used to look at the crazy schedules of my friends who also teach and wondered how they coped with big trips back to back, but now that I find myself occasionally in the same boat, the answer is; you just do it. When you love making art, teaching and need to pay the bills, there really isn’t…

  • A blast of creativity and fun in my workshops with Unique Stitching

    A blast of creativity and fun in my workshops with Unique Stitching

    The last 3 weeks have been a whirlwind. I taught 2 classes with Unique Stitching, 3 classes at the Creative textiles show in Canberra, flew home from Australia on May 5th then drove to Fresno on May 8th, where I gave a lecture and taught a painting class. I’m just now catching my breath and able to…

  • New product review: Golden High Flow Acrylics

    New product review: Golden High Flow Acrylics

    Recently I bought some Golden High Flow acrylics to experiment with. These are not the same as Golden’s Fluid Acrylics which are slightly thicker in consistency. The high flow acrylics are like Liquitex and the FW Daler Rowney acrylic inks I have become so fond of painting with. The number one reason I bought the…

  • My week in Austin

    My week in Austin

    What an amazing trip I had to Austin, Connecticut and New York, then unfortunately immediately on my return I got the flu, but I’m happily on my way to wellness again and ready to start sharing my adventures with you. The weekend I arrived in Austin, I taught two classes with the Austin Area Quilt…

  • It was a day filled with amazing paintings

    It was a day filled with amazing paintings

    Each morning I get a horoscope in my email. I generally take these with a grain of salt and just think of it as a fun way to start the day, but this one was just the thing to read before my painting class. I think ‘I‘ turned out to be the ‘right‘ person, because…

  • An Exquisite Moment: Fear of Flying

    An Exquisite Moment: Fear of Flying

    I am very honored my art quilt ‘Fear of Flying’ was accepted into the exhibit ‘An Exquisite Moment’ curated by Jamie Fingal and Leslie Tucker Jenison premiering at International Quilt Festival in Long Beach August 2-4, and will travel to each International Quilt Festival venue over the next year. My artist statement about this piece is…

  • Growing pains

    Growing pains

    I think it’s important to keep growing, learning, honing skills and expanding ones repertoire. The hard part is how all encompassing it can sometimes feel. I’ve been very busy with several projects that unfortunately I can’t really talk about. One is an art quilt entry for an exhibition, and the rest are projects and prep…

  • Join me on a Hawaiian Island Quilt Cruise for a Cause

    This October come with me for a painting and surface design adventure on an island hopping Quilt n’ Cruise to Hawaii. A really wonderful aspect of this cruise, is that a portion of the proceeds go to funding breast cancer research. Beyond contributing to such a wonderful cause, what could be more inspiring than a cruise…

  • Painting Imagery on Fabric at Road to California

    Painting Imagery on Fabric at Road to California

    I had a great time teaching last week. The first class I taught was painting, this is my favorite class to teach, because primarily I teach people who dont have any formal art training basic techniques to successfully paint on cotton fabric, which is a lot harder than painting on canvas. It was wonderful to see…